Files

Looking for a single-disk version of FreeDOS?
We don't have an official single-disk FreeDOS available, but BALDER ("replacement" for ODIN) is often recommended for new users.
(Download)

FreeDOS 1.0

You are downloading an entire operating system, and in most cases, you are then going to install the operating system on your computer. If you already have another operating system on your computer, it may be overwritten during the installation process. If this is not what you intend, stop now.

To install FreeDOS,
download the ISO image of the installation CDROM you wish to use. You may need to right-click on the link and choose "Save As", depending on your system:

The recommended download for dial-up users and those with limited hard drive space. It contains only the BASE diskset and lacks a LiveCD portion. If you are not sure which FreeDOS "1.0" distribution you need, you should download fdbasecd.

This is the recommended download for users with a fast internet connection and a reasonable level of free hard disk space. It is the same as fdbasecd, but adds the LiveCD portion and the COMPRESS, DRIVER, EDIT, GAMES, GUI, LANG, MEDIA, NET, and UTIL disksets. If you are an experienced DOS user, you should download fdfullcd. The fdfullcd also includes the source code of all BASE packages and a LiveCD portion, as does the fdbasews image.

Need help? If you are having problems installing FreeDOS 1.0, or to see a list of known-issues, please refer to the following:

Using Linux?
If you run Linux, you may be interested in sys-freedos-linux as a way to SYS your disk image directly from Linux. (Requires perl.)

If you are a developer who is interested in obtaining the source code,
note that ISO images containing the source code (fdbasews, fdfullws) are also located in the same directory as the ISO images containing just the binaries. However, they are not required to install FreeDOS:

The same as fdbasecd, plus source code for packages in BASE. You should not download fdbasews unless you are a developer who would like to view the source code, or unless you want a small CD image with LiveCD (fdbasews is smaller than fdfullcd.)

The same as fdfullcd, plus source code for all packages. This is a very large file. We mean it. No really, this is huge, and probably unnecessary except for the hard-core developer. If you want the source code for the "1.0" distribution, you're probably better off looking through the pkgs directory on ibiblio. You should not download fdfullws unless you are a developer who would like to view the source code.

After downloading the ISO images, check the MD5 checksums for the ISO images to ensure that your download was successful. Do this by running the md5sum program from a shell prompt against your ISO images and comparing the values returned against the ones published by the FreeDOS Project. The file has the same name as the ISO image, with an md5 extension, and is located in the same directory as the ISO images on the download site.
If the MD5 sums match, burn the ISO images to CD-Rs or CD-RWs. Note: writing the ISOs to CD requires a program that should be provided by your regular operating system.